Rescuers arrived to find bodies strewn across the ground and the incinerated remains of the balloon lying in a charred heap.

Mr Bampton, an artist and valuer of
rugs and carpets, and Miss Gyetvai both worked for an auction house in
Chelsea, West London and had been due to return from Egypt this week.

Respect: Ezat Saad, Governor of the ancient temple city of Luxor (left) and Japanese Okumura Hatsuko (right) director of Japanese division in an Egyptian travel agency lay flowers at the site of the accident

Bodies: Medical workers in Cairo with the bodies of those who were killed in the tragic accident

Solemn: The bodies were transported to Egypt's capital by plane overnight

Mission: A worker is grim-faced as he carries a stretcher holding the body of one of the victims

Reception: A team of workers on the runway ready to handle the bodies on their return to Cairo

Nick
Carter, senior auctioneer at the Lots Road auction house said the
couple both loved the country and that their sudden deaths had
devastated their colleagues.

He added: 'They were two people very much in love and a lovely couple. They were companions to each other.

'They were very
different people but they were very much in love. They loved being
together. They worked here professionally and they were both artists.

'It's not about a colleague being
sorely missed, it's about being proper bereavement. Our managing
director has described him as one of his sons.

'They lived together and have a
whippet dog called Ollie. All of us are devastated and some are coping
better than others. It's a horrible experience.

'We all get touched by death
sometimes but this isn't a normal experience. It's not somebody dying of
a heart attack - it's much bigger than that.'

The green hot air balloon can be seen as it took off, before exploding and plunging to earth in Egypt

Before the blaze: This picture shows the basket carrying tourists that exploded and plunged to earth

Yvonne Rennie and Joe Bampton (right) were the Britons understood to have died in the horrific tragedy

Popular Suzanna Gyetvai in was on board the air craft which plunged to earth after it hit a power line

Alison Robertson, 56, who was a next-door neighbour, said: 'They were a lovely couple - very quiet, unassuming people. It's such a waste of life.

The other Briton who died at the scene was Mrs Rennie, from Perth in Scotland.

Neighbours in Perth today said they were deeply shocked by the news. Kathleen Lumsden, 77, added: 'Michael told me that he was going on a hot air balloon before he left.

'It sounded like something he would be into - he was quite adventurous. It is just terrible, terrible news.'

The
British ambassador to Cairo, James Watt, visited Mr Rennie at hospital
in Cairo, where he was airlifted after the disaster, and said he was
‘remarkably well’ after his ordeal.

Mr Rennie has a son and a daughter
from a previous relationship and works as a package manager for
construction firm Carillion.

Jane Smith, a spokeswoman for the
Wolverhampton-based company, which employs 21,000 people across the UK,
said: 'We are shocked to hear today's tragic news and our thoughts are
with the family at this very sad time.'

Mrs Rennie worked as a hospital receptionist at Perth Royal infirmary. The couple had been together for a decade but had only married five years ago.

This sequence shows the moment the hot-air balloon exploded during the sightseeing trip, killing 19 tourists

VIDEO Hot air balloon disaster was captured on camera

Mr Bampton studied at Slade College of Fine Art and is believed to have had work exhibited at the Royal Academy.

His colleague Mr Carter said: 'The
word I would use to describe Joe is very peaceful. He was a very gentle
and quiet man, laid back and happy.

'He didn't try and make jokes all the time but when he did say something it was normally very funny. He was a very loved person.

'Joe came to us in the mid nineties.
He had been with us for a long time and we knew him very well. We are
all very close here, like a family.

'He was very passionate about his work and I worked with him closely. He was very successful at it.'

Mr Carter added: 'I broke the news of his death to one of our clients today and he broke down in tears.

'It is very tragic. It's a very hard
thing to come to terms with, it's like losing a brother. Joe's death
will leave a huge hole. We are all just in shock at the moment.'

The site of the balloon crash where the remains of the burned gondola are seen

Investigation: An Egyptian inspector of the Civil Aviation Authority walks among the wreckage. Shocked eye-witnesses told yesterday how the pilot and a number of passengers jumped from balloon at around 300ft as it was being towed into land and hit a power line

VIDEO British survivor of fireball is taken to Egyptian hospital

Miss Gyetvai was a Hungarian working in the valuations department as an administrator.

He said: 'Suzanna was a lovely girl. She was incredibly pretty and a very popular member of staff. She had been with us for three years and was part of the family. It is incredibly sad.

'She was a lovely person. She was
very headstrong - she was different to Joe in that way.'

The four Britons caught up in the
world's worst ballooning disaster were on holiday with tour operator
Thomas Cook, who issued a statement confirming the three deaths and
adding that the company was working with the Foreign Office and the
authorities in Egypt.

Yesterday afternoon the bodies of tourists
from Britain, Belgium, France, Hungary, Japan and Hong Kong could be
seen scattered in the field along with gas canisters and wreckage from
the balloon.

The pilot survived by jumping from
the basket when it was 10-15 metres from the ground, said Ahmed Aboud,
head of an association representing Luxor balloon operators.

Mohamed Mustafa, a doctor at at Luxor hospital said the fatalities were caused by burns and by the impact.

Destroyed: Egyptians inspect the site where the remnants of the craft landed after it exploded during a sunrise flight

Health Minister Mohamed Mostafa Hamed
said the blast had happened in the pipe linking the gas canisters to
the burner and the tragedy was an accident.

Moustafa
who works for the travel company that organised the hot air balloon ride
told France 24: 'I saw a fire in the balloon’s basket. Due to the fire,
the balloon lost [altitude]. It was out of control.

'It jerked up and
dropped down again 30 metres. There were some people jumping from the
balloon and falling into the sugar cane fields before it crashed.

Tour operator Kuoni has confirmed there
were nine Chinese nationals on board the craft - tourists from three families were involved in the fatal crash.

France's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that two French nationals also died in the crash.

The Japanese embassy in Cairo said it believed four Japanese had been aboard and had sent staff to Luxor to confirm this.

Moments away: The launch site prior to the hot air balloon explosion - two of the Britons involved in the balloon tragedy were today named locally as Michael and Yvonne Rennie, of Perth, Scotland

Gas tanks amid the wreckage: Tour operator Kuoni has confirmed there were nine Chinese nationals on board the craft - tourists from three families were involved in the fatal crash

Wreckage: Egyptian security forces pick up pieces of the mangled wreckage in the cane field

Jumped: An employee at the company operating the balloon, Sky Cruise, said the two survivors jumped from the basket before it hit the ground

The authorities have been seen putting corpses into body bags and taking them away in ambulances.

U.S. photographer Christopher Michel was in another balloon behind, taking some aerial shots, when the accident happened.

‘I was in the balloon in front. There were around eight balloons flying that morning,' he said.

‘I heard a loud explosion behind us and saw lots of smoke.

‘Our pilot said that something like
this had not happened for a long time, told us to look forward and we
were taken to the ground.

‘I did not see the balloon come down but I would assume it fell.

‘It is a real tragedy and everybody is in a lot of shock.’

Eyewitnesses: People in the area heard a huge bang and saw the green and yellow balloon (pictured right before take-off) crash into a sugar cane field

Witness: Photographer Christopher Michel took pictures of the group of balloons 40 minutes before the crash, and he also heard the explosion

RADIO 2 ACCUSED OF BEING 'CRASS AND INSENSITIVE' OVER HOT AIR BALLOON TWEET

BBC Radio 2 has been criticised after posting a 'crass and insensitive' message on Twitter following this morning's hot air balloon accident.

The tweet from the Jeremy Vine show read: '19 tourists are believed to have died in a hot air balloon crash in Egypt. Have you tried something you wouldn't normally on holiday?'

ScottishFalsettoSock tweeted back: 'No, not crass or insensitive at all.'

tvBite added: 'Have you tried not being c**** about hot air balloon crashes that kill 19 people?'

Several other tweeters compared the tweet to ignorantly commenting on the Holocaust and the Tsunami.

Paddy O'Connell is hosting the midday show for Jeremy Vine. .

Ezzat Saad, the governor of Luxor,
told Nile News that the Egyptian pilot of the balloon was in the
hospital with 70 percent burns.

General
Mamdough Khaled, director of security for Luxor Governate said in a
statement Luxor International Hospital received 19 badly burned bodies.

The Foreign Office said in a
statement: 'We can confirm the tragic deaths of two British Nationals
and one British resident following a hot air balloon crash in Luxor,
Egypt earlier today.'

'The
next of kin have been informed and our thoughts are with them and their
families at this difficult time. We are providing them with consular
assistance. We can also confirm that one other British National was
involved and is in a stable condition.'

'I
know the pilot – he’s a good pilot. The problem wasn’t him, it was the
balloon – what could he do? Everyone in our company is shocked and very
sad about what’s happened.'

Konny Matthews, assistant manager of Luxor's Al Moudira hotel, said she heard an explosion at about 7 a.m. (0500 GMT).

'It was a huge bang. It was a frightening bang, even though it was several kilometres away from the hotel,' she said by phone. 'Some of my employees said that their homes were shaking.'

The balloon crashed on the west bank of the Nile river, where many of the major historical sites are located.

Tragedy: At least 19 foreign tourists, including some British citizens, have been killed after their hot air balloon exploded and fell from the sky

Tragic: The authorities have been seen putting corpses into body bags and taking them away in ambulances

Shocked: Egyptians gather near the scene of the crash - it is unclear exactly exactly how many people were onboard the flight

DEADLIEST HOT AIR BALLOON ACCIDENT IN HISTORY

This morning's accident may be the deadliest hot air balloon accident in history.

The previous highest death toll was in 1989, when 13 people were killed after two hot air balloons collided in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

The mid-air collision happened as one hot air balloon ascended, smashing into another carriage above it.

This caused one of them to be sent crashing towards the ground - the descent reportedly lasted 51 seconds.

Witness statements said the balloon 'folded and fell to earth' and that it 'fell to the ground like a streamer.'

In 1992 the Darwin Supreme Court sentenced the pilot of the upper balloon, Michael Sanby, to two years' jail, with an eight-month parole period, after being found guilty of committing a dangerous act. He was found not guilty on 13 charges of manslaughter.

The catastrophe may be the deadliest hot
air balloon accident in history - in 1989 13 people were killed when
two hot air balloons collided in Australia.

Hot air balloon trips, usually at
sunrise over the Karnak and Luxor temples as well as the Valley of the
Kings, are popular with British visitors to Egypt.

A Thomas Cook spokesman said: 'As well as Thomas Cook's experienced team on the ground in Luxor, the tour operator is sending a specialist Welfare Team to support all of its customers in resort.

'Counselling Services will be provided to any guests who want them and Thomas Cook’s experienced Reps are also visiting hotels regularly to speak to customers.

'Specialist assistance and counselling is of course being provided to the family and friends of those directly involved in the incident this morning.

'The hotline number for concerned relatives - 0800 107 5638 – remains open for those in the UK and Thomas Cook continues to work closely with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the authorities in Egypt.

'Thomas Cook guests are able to purchase hot air balloon excursions (in addition to other excursions) which are available locally.

'A full investigation is now taking place in conjunction with the local authorities and until this has been concluded, sales of excursions through Hot Air Balloon suppliers in Egypt have been temporarily suspended by all tour operators, in accordance with the latest FTO advice.'

Sixteen
people were hurt, including two British women, when a balloon crashed
during a tour of Luxor in April 2009.

Doomed: The hot air balloon involved in the crash flies over the memorial temple of Ramses II known as The Ramesseum during a early morning flight in December

Experience of a lifetime: For many tourists, an early morning flight over The Valley Of The Kings is the highlight of their holiday (file image)

HOT AIR BALLOON SAFETY IN EGYPT: 'PATCHY AND IN SOME CASES INAPPROPRIATE'

Phil Dunington, a commercial ballooning consultant who has advised the Egyptian government on safety says the country's supervision of the industry is 'patchy and in some cases inappropriate.'

He also suggested that competition for tourist business among rival operators may affect safety standards.

Mr Dunington said: 'The thing to recognise is that there are a lot of operators out there. There is a great commercial rivalry, so clearly there are the good and less good among them.

Talking about the prospect of an explosion on board the balloon at a height of about 1,000ft, he said it was too early to say what might have caused it.

'There are a number of possible causes, but equipment failure in balloons is very rare these days, so that is a less likely cause, although it is possible.

'It's possible that contact with a power line might have been an issue and of course balloons are powered by propane, so the propane gas is an element to concentrate on. It may have been a contributory factor.'

The balloon was believed to have
hit a mobile phone transmission tower near the banks of the Nile.

Former policewoman Linda Lea, 67, from Stoke-on-Trent, still suffers from the multiple injuries she sustained in that crash.

She said today: 'I cannot believe
this has happened again. They promised to tighten safety procedures
after my crash. Flights were stopped for a time.

'These balloons are just too
unstable. There is not enough training of staff. There were about 22 or
23 in my balloon when it crashed and maybe there was too many then and too many in today's accident.'

Mrs Lea's injuries included a fractured spine, a broken collarbone, broken ribs and a broken shin.Her balloon hit a mobile phone transmission tower after a strong gust of wind, sending the balloon crashing to the ground.

Mrs
Lea was dragged along the ground and then left in a field for an hour.

She was in hospital for a total of four months, receiving treatment in
Egypt and then in the West Midlands and then nearer her home.

Following the 2009 crash, early
morning hot air balloon flights over the Valley of the Kings on the West
Bank of the Nile were suspended for six months while safety measures
were tightened up.

During the break, all 42 pilots from the eight companies who operate flights had extra training.

Other initiatives to improve safety
brought in included confining all take-offs to a new balloon 'airport'
and limiting the maximum number of balloons up at the same time to eight
- previously as many as 50 could share the air space.

Luxor is 320 miles south
of Cairo and is one of Egypt's most popular tourist destinations as it
is close to the famous Valley of the Kings, where many pharaohs are
buried, including Tutankhamen.

The
incident could damage Egypt's fragile tourism industry, which has
suffered a sharp downturn in visitor numbers since the 2011 uprising
that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, with two years of political
instability scaring off foreign tourists.